Intel's first hire (from left), Andy Grove, and Intel co-founders Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore in 1978, the 10th anniversary of the company. Grove is sitting on a graphical layout (a rubylith) of one of Intel's early microprocessors. Courtesy of Intel hide caption
Starting Up: Silicon Valley's Origins
There was a time when the idea of engineers starting their own company was rare.Fairchild's first microchip combined four transistors, six resistors and their interconnecting wires onto a single sliver of silicon, in 1960. Today's microprocessors can employ more than 1 billion transistors. Fairchild/Courtesy of the Computer History Museum hide caption
Virginia Klausmeier (left) makes her pitch for Garage Technology Ventures to invest in her clean diesel fuel company, Sylvatex, to Bill Reichert and Joyce Chung, two of the firm's general partners. Cindy Carpien/NPR hide caption